The Ottawa Hospital Inter-Campus Referrals
It's hard to believe that The Ottawa Hospital, formerly individual municipal hospitals which had amalgamated their administrations and services in the interests of better serving the population through tighter controls, co-operation between campuses and greater efficiency since the Harris Conservative-led provincial government introduced the concept, still hasn't got its act together.
A recently reported incident where a young woman whose doctor referred her to the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital on an "urgent" basis due to a mysterious breakdown of her health which he suspected might be due to some manner of infectious disease impacting on her organs represents a startling case in point.
She was informed that she would have to wait for a year or longer to undergo the required tests at the infectious-diseases clinic at the General Campus. Her mother, alarmed at the nonsensical nature of that response, given the doctor's "urgent" designation, made her own enquiries and discovered that the same type of clinic at the Civic Campus had a wait-time of a mere few weeks.
Johanna Berg's mother was initially informed by a clerk at the hospital that her daughter's file could not be transferred from the General to the Civic Campus to take advantage of the clinic's shorter wait-time. The young woman's constant battle with mononucleosis and her general health breakdown seemed to indicate something was seriously wrong and becoming worse.
Her mother was insistent, and spoke to a supervisor who affirmed that there was no reason why the young woman couldn't be looked after at the Civic Campus infectious-diseases clinic. In fact, a senior vice-president at The Ottawa Hospital insisted this was meant to happen but in this case it would appear that "communication didn't happen between the two sites".
It would seem imperative that this not be seen as a casually inadvertent error in miscommunication. Much depends on it, for the health outcome of critically ill patients. And Cameron Love, the hospital spokesperson stated that the hospital was in the process of refining their referral process. And that it would take a year to a year-and-a-half to complete the process.
Which seems a dismal prospect for people who must fend for themselves because the hospital seems incapable of following through on a seemingly simple process of cross-referral, when required to simplify and streamline an urgent request in service to the public.
A recently reported incident where a young woman whose doctor referred her to the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital on an "urgent" basis due to a mysterious breakdown of her health which he suspected might be due to some manner of infectious disease impacting on her organs represents a startling case in point.
She was informed that she would have to wait for a year or longer to undergo the required tests at the infectious-diseases clinic at the General Campus. Her mother, alarmed at the nonsensical nature of that response, given the doctor's "urgent" designation, made her own enquiries and discovered that the same type of clinic at the Civic Campus had a wait-time of a mere few weeks.
Johanna Berg's mother was initially informed by a clerk at the hospital that her daughter's file could not be transferred from the General to the Civic Campus to take advantage of the clinic's shorter wait-time. The young woman's constant battle with mononucleosis and her general health breakdown seemed to indicate something was seriously wrong and becoming worse.
Her mother was insistent, and spoke to a supervisor who affirmed that there was no reason why the young woman couldn't be looked after at the Civic Campus infectious-diseases clinic. In fact, a senior vice-president at The Ottawa Hospital insisted this was meant to happen but in this case it would appear that "communication didn't happen between the two sites".
It would seem imperative that this not be seen as a casually inadvertent error in miscommunication. Much depends on it, for the health outcome of critically ill patients. And Cameron Love, the hospital spokesperson stated that the hospital was in the process of refining their referral process. And that it would take a year to a year-and-a-half to complete the process.
Which seems a dismal prospect for people who must fend for themselves because the hospital seems incapable of following through on a seemingly simple process of cross-referral, when required to simplify and streamline an urgent request in service to the public.
Labels: Health, Human Relations, Ottawa
posted by Pieface | 6:41 PM
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